The Ridiculously Stupid Way Some People Are Destroying Globalization in Soccer

I have recently become annoyed with certain soccer fans and the way they express their passion and pride. In the last month alone, there have been a series of racist and sexual remarks by thousands of fans that have tainted the international spirit of the sport.

I only became a big soccer fan a couple of years ago, but I quickly became a fan of the way that the sport embodies and promotes the idea of global unification. I'm not talking about the world peace cliche that Miss Universe candidates always talk about in beauty pageants--I'm simply talking about how, in comparison to other global sports, soccer has managed to break down every single barrier out there.

Soccer exists in Europe, South America, North America, Asia, Africa, and even Australia has been on the rise lately. More importantly, these countries all have multiple leagues full of international players from other countries and continents. Just look at the Union of European Football Associations(UEFA), the European soccer association. It combines all of the other national European associations and has tournaments(such as the Champions League and Europa League) where teams from different countries and leagues can play each others. On top of that, each country's leagues is full of international players from all over the country that give it even more of an international presence.

My point is that these leagues are constantly reaching out to players and teams from other countries in order to get the best players they can get. Sure, leagues like the MLB and NBA have been branching out as well, but they don't play against other continents or even countries during the season...which is why you would imagine that soccer is bereft of cross-cultural problems, right?

Well, not exactly. My whole point with this post was to address Italy's Lazio's anti-semitic remarks towards Tottenham, a British teams with a large Jewish fanbase. Last month, they played a competitive match where fans started chanting "Spurs Jews" and "Free Palestine" in order to instigate the Tottenham fans. Only half a week after that when Tottenham played West Ham United, their fellow Englishmen followed in Lazio's footsteps and even took it up a notch by making remarks about Adolf Hitler, the Holocaust, and concentration camps.

I admire the passion in soccer fans and their originality in their chants of pride, but I am at a loss for words when hearing about these low blows. Despite all the progress that soccer has made in a world that is still slowly becoming accustomed to the ever-growing globalization, there is still a shocking level of ignorance dominating some people.

The incident that really made me want to write this article was when the Russian Zenit St. Petersburg largest fan group issued the following statement in writing:

"We're not racists but we see the absence of black players at Zenit as an important tradition. It would allow Zenit to maintain the national identity of the club, which is the symbol of St Petersburg."

I understand the idea of tradition and trying to maintain cultural values, but traditions and cultures change, especially in soccer. The fact that they talk about having "an abscence of black players" instead of only having Russian players is what bugs me the most--it's a clear sign of racism instead of national pride. Would they lash against a black Russian? Thankfully, the team did not agree with their fans' sentiments, but it is still very concerning to see how people deal with their love for the game and their national pride. Unsurprisingly enough, these same fans also asked their team to stay away from homosexuals and other sexual minorities.

I know that this is a lot of venting, but I can't help but be surprised by the fact that the World Cup continues to be the biggest international sporting event of a single sport, and there are people in Russia lowering black people that way. And I don't understand why the yearly UEFA Champions League final is the most respected and prestigious sporting event in the world(I guess that's subjective but it is the most watched event of the year, even over the Super Bowl), yet Jewish people are being reminded of the terrible fate of their ancestors by tasteless Lazio and West Ham fans imitating the sounds of 1940s gas chambers.